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International company to reopen Ritz-Carlton
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JOHN LOCHER/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Units for the Ritz-Carlton hotel span Lake Las Vegas on Feb. 17. Dolce Hotels and Resorts, an international boutique lodging operator, said it will rebrand the hotel, which closed in May, and reopen it in the first quarter of 2011. » Buy this photo
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Lake Las Vegas at the MonteLago Village is seen Feb. 26. Village shop and restaurant operators welcomed the news that Dolce Hotels and Resorts will reopen the Ritz-Carlton. A Dolce official said his company expects to hire "several hundred" people to staff the hotel. JEFF SCHIED/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL » Buy this photo
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Updated: Sep. 23, 2010 | 12:19 a.m.
Four months after closing, Lake Las Vegas' shuttered Ritz-Carlton was given new life Tuesday.
Dolce Hotels and Resorts, an international boutique lodging operator with 27 properties in North America and Europe, said it plans to reopen the 349-room nongaming hotel in the first quarter of 2011.
Dolce executive said the hotel will be rebranded under a new name. The Ritz-Carlton closed in May and laid off about 350 workers.
The company, which is majority-owned by Broadreach Capital Partners and has corporate headquarters in Montvale, N.J., and Paris, operates hotels and resorts in 12 states and five countries, employing more than 4,000 workers.
Dolce executives said the 15-acre site at the edge of the development's 340-acre man-made lake, is a natural fit for the company's hotel portfolio, which focuses on properties situated just outside major metropolitan areas.
Dolce President and Chief Executive Officer Steven Rudnitsky said the company had been looking at the Lake Las Vegas site when the Ritz-Carlton operation was in its final months.
Rudnitsky said Lake Las Vegas fits the company's business model.
"For us, this is hitting the drive right down the center of the fairway," Rudnitsky said. "We plan to work cooperatively with the Lake Las Vegas community. Roughly 60 percent of our customer base (is) big corporate customers, which gives us a captive audience."
Most of the Dolce hotels specialize in meetings and events. The company hosts some 30,000 events annually across its properties.
Ritz-Carlton leased the site from Village Hospitality LLC, which hired Dolce. The Ritz-Carlton opened in February 2003. The property has 32,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space and a 30,000-square-foot spa and fitness center, along with multiple restaurants.
Rudnitsky said a new name will be picked in the coming months. He expects the property to hire "several hundred" workers.
Lake Las Vegas, a 3,600-acre Mediterranean-themed master-planned community in Henderson some 14 miles east of the Strip, has been besieged with bad news since its operators filed for bankruptcy in July 2008.
Two of the development's three championship 18-hole golf courses closed and custom home sales shrunk. Lake Las Vegas has some 1,700 homes and condominiums.
Ritz-Carlton announced the closing of its Lake Las Vegas property in early February. A week later, Casino MonteLago, the community's only gaming establishment, closed March 14.
Only one hotel, the 493-room Loews Lake Vegas, remains open, along with the Jack Nicklaus-designed SouthShore Golf Club, which has continued to operate as a semiprivate facility.
"We're happy to hear we have new neighbors and we look forward to welcoming Dolce to the Lake Las Vegas community," Loews Lake Las Vegas General Manager Brian Johnson said.
Operators of the MonteLago Village, Lake Las Vegas' shopping and restaurant attraction, welcomed the news that Dolce was taking over the Ritz-Carlton site. The hotel property is connected to the adjacent MonteLago Village by a covered pedestrian bridge overlooking the lake.
"We knew something was coming and this is just a huge boost for morale," Maurice Talley, commercial manager for MonteLago Village, said Tuesday.
The village is more than 90 percent occupied and despite the closed hotel and casino properties, the attraction has been able to add tenants. Talley said an Italian restaurant, Luna Rose, closed but reopened quickly under new operators, while a stand-up paddleboard business drew attention during the summer.
Talley said the village concentrated its marketing efforts on Lake Las Vegas residents and the surrounding Henderson community.
"Everybody has been hopeful and this is the news we have been waiting to hear," Talley said. "There has been a lot of buzz and we knew something would happen soon."
Talley said tenants are hopeful that Casino Montelago, which is connected to the village, will eventually reopen. It had been operated by CIRI Lakeside Gaming Investors LLC, which blamed the Ritz-Carlton's closure and lack of visitation for its own shutdown.
The 40,000-square-foot casino, which had 635 slot machines, a dozen table games and a race and sports book, eliminated 177 jobs when it closed.
Rudnitsky said Dolce has no plans to operate Casino MonteLago, but will work with any company that takes over management of the gaming establishment.
"We definitely want to see the casino reopen," he said.
A federal bankruptcy judge approved Lake Las Vegas' reorganization plan in June, wiping out debt and giving the development a chance to rebound.
Henderson officials are hopeful Dolce's move into Lake Las Vegas is just the start of more positive events for the development.
"It's nice to hear some good news for a change," Henderson City Councilman Steve Kirk said. "The (MonteLago Village) shop owners may have been dying on the vine so I'm sure they are happy to hear more customer traffic is on the way."
Contact reporter Howard Stutz at hstutz@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3871.
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@So is just trying to rattle cages. All of the negative posters here have no clue about how and why things are different in LLV now and what has changed. Take the time to read the bankruptcy plan, supporting documents and the recent lawsuit filed against the former insiders and you will be enlightened and shocked on how the former insideres ruined LLV. I have read it, so I can make fact based comments here.
This is why LLV couldn't make a "go" of it the first time, then you add in the worst recession in history on top of that.
However, all of that has changed!! The former insiders are mostly gone. The 500 million $$ equity loan and other debts by the former insiders are gone. (shame on them for doing that to LLV) Had they not took the loan that they put into their pocket, LLV could have weathered this recession.
By the way, Dolce is just managing the property, they didn't buy it.... and PS Deutsche Bank turned down offers of over 80 million on the Ritz/Casino property. Dolce will bring their own captive audience to LLV and the village. This is different than the Ritz concept.
Lastly, to clarify the 30 paddlers, that was just when it opened.. there were probably 30 more paddlers each hour arriving throughout the day. The lake was full all day. It was great to see the lake busy with activity and people having fun in a beautiful cool lake. Hats off to Kathy for bringing this thriving business to the LLV Marina.
Good luck with that.
They couldn't make a "go" of the place when the economy was good. So how in Gods name is it going work when the economy is in the shape its in now??
And sorry its really not that "nice" out there. Maybe I'm biased, I have traveled and lived in different parts of the US...went to boarding school north of lake tahoe in the Sierras, went to college on the east coast in the Blue Ridge mtns of VA, lived in Santa Cruz County for 10+ years...so I know what nice is and LLV is not it.
Stick a fork in Lake Las Vegas. I've been out there a handful of times over the last 6 years and it was very nice. I wouldn't mind owning a house for cheap out there, and holding it for 10 years until they come back online. But until then they are toast. Don't reopen the casino, it sucked.
They have a really interesting portfolio ... 19 properties in the states and 6 properties in Europe, including Spain, Germany, France and Belgium. I wish them luck. The Ritz-Carlton is a beautiful property. It's great it will reopen!
What I want to know is that if LLV did not thrive during the boom years, how will it thrive now? It's real pretty out there but it's just not needed. JennyD is just trying to put lipstick on the pig that is LLV. "So" is correct and is just being a realist. I live here and I'd love to see LLV and the rest of the Las Vegas area thrive. But I'm not going to delude myself into thinking LLV is on the way to prosperity.
@so? -
...comment 3 of 3...
The new Dolce hotel is not part of pollyanna optimism. It's fact that Dolce is a global brand with an exceptional business model for quaint, upscale communities near major metropolitan cities. Plus, they're buying in when the climate is likely as bad as it could be. I assure you, a company like Dolce doesn't just "let it ride" on 19 red. Dolce execs were out in June checking out the property in person, so they've been researching this venture for probably 4+ months. Not exactly an impulse buy. It is a win-win for both, and Dolce will be fine.
@so? -
...comment 2 of 3...
So...your argument hinges on property values. Since you're a realtor, I trust the numbers you quoted. But property values have NOTHING to do with the success of the project from a tourism & resort perspective. That would be like pulling numbers from the condos at the District and saying that the place is only worth a quarter of what it used to be. Sure, home and lot values are down (as you said, just like they are everywhere). What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?
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@so? -
No. Things DID stink about 3 years ago @ foreclosure. Again at about 2 years ago when the pipes started leaking (supposedly). Again at about 20 months ago @ BK. Again at about 6 months ago @ closure of the Ritz. NOW, things do not stink. The FACTS are that the community is no longer riddled with hundreds of millions in debt. It is also no longer in BK. Its signature resort (the former Ritz) is reopening with a high-end brand who is prepared to bring a lot of its own high-end business. The casino is also supposed to reopen by the end of the year under a much more experienced gaming brand and the Falls Golf Course is also rumored to be a major part of all of this (it's still being - very expensively - maintained on a 7-days-per-week basis...the greens were just re-sodded). The Lake is fine, and the 10-year maintenance repairs have been made to last thru 2020. The owners of the Village are in fantastic financial shape - so much so that they just bought both residential pieces on each side of the lake at MonteLago (they used to just own the retail).
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News flash - this will do nothing to help LLV. The project is hopeless.
@Jenny.. BTW I do "get" LLV. I like the place, and I wish it the best of luck. Would I recommend buying something out there right now? Well, if you want to live there fine... but as an investment? Might as well throw your money overboard from your paddleboat.